A Diamond in the Rough
by ElvishHex
Summary: Taking place 100 years after the Hero of Winds was awakened, a new continent, called Aquila by its Hylian colonists, has been discovered. This beautiful land seemed a paradise to its new inhabitants-until two warring races turned it into Hell.


There are two kinds of Hylians; the Free and the Enslaved. But before, it was never this way.   
  
After the world of Hyrule sank to the bottom of the sea, those who were left were scattered amongst tiny islands. To be so confined in one spot forever taunted them as many who departed to explore the seemingly endless ocean disappeared without a trace. Then, when evil struck again in the form of Ganon, the Hero of Winds was awakened and brought on a new Age. Following Ganon's defeat, the winds guided him to a new land. He had come to call this new continent, Aquila, the Land of Winds.  
  
  
  
Settlers quickly arrived to colonize and claim land of their own...but it was not their's to begin with.   
  
Two ancient, warring races, the Sheikah and the Dracos, made swift retribution against the Hylians' interferring colonies. By this time, the Hero of Winds had already passed Aquila on to Princess Zelda and was never seen or heard of again.   
  
Zelda took responsibility for Aquila and sought peace with the two conflicting tribes. She remained impartial and agreed with the Sheikah and Dracos to keep her people to the reserved, southeastern coast and stay there. But something happened she did not intend.   
  
Many bands of Hylians had not heeded the warnings of leaving and journeyed west into Dracos territory. They had found new land and they weren't about to be stopped from colonizing it. They did...and paid a terrible price.   
  
The Dracos had found Hylian's rather useful and instead of destroying them immediatley, they trapped them, and raised them like cattle. All who left Aquila became easy prey for the Dracos. They would enslave and exploit any who set foot into their lands.  
  
  
  
Though the cruelty of the Dracos lingered on, the Hero of Winds did not return, nor did any hero rise up to stop the feuding. And so, for over a century, the Hylians of Aquila remained stationary and in the middle of a neverending war.   
  
Chapter 1: The Encounter  
  
On the other side of the thickly barbed cage, Glaurung's fiery yellow eyes peered through the bars at a small, seven year old boy. He was huddled pitifully against the cold concrete wall, dressed in a tattered, brown tunic. His long, unbrushed and ungroomed, strawberry blond hair draped across his face. Straw from his bedding poked out of his hair like needles and covered his clothing messily. The boy's piercing sapphire blue eyes glared at the Dracos man with both resentment and fear.   
  
Glaurung whipped his spiked tail out at the metal bars to induce a reaction. The bars cried out and echoed through the stone barn, vibrating from the strong impact. The other Hylians in their neat rows of cages jumped with surprise...but the boy did not.   
  
"What number is this one?" Glaurung snarled at the boy in frustration and turned his giant, golden snout to another Dracos, a blue female.   
  
She was much more slender than he as were most female Dracos, but her confidence matched his own. She did not back down with a mere glance.   
  
"He is #92...but he's also called Skinny or Runt. He won't eat like the others." she replied and looked at the boy once more. He did not move an inch.   
  
"A peck who doesn't eat is no good to me." Glaurung said.   
  
"Well, if he doesn't appease you in that way, perhaps the fact that he is a very good servant?"   
  
"I've seen four year olds who were excellent servants, H'loke." he pointed out.   
  
"True, but this one is house-broken. And when he matures, maybe he'll eat more." she said, "He's certainly different from the rest, but he behaves."   
  
"How much is he?"   
  
"About 200 rupees."   
  
This was cheap! DIRT cheap! The average slave was at least 1000...but then again, his size made him worth little more than waste. Glaurung thought this was an easy problem to remedy.   
  
After much thought, he said finally,   
  
"I'll keep him in mind. Now, how about this one?" the two moved on to another imprisonment.   
  
All the while, the young boy kept his eyes on Glaurung as they examined the other slaves....or meat for sale. This included his family of three who were now seperated into individual cells for an easier examination of health. Skinny craned his neck to get a better look at them until the two Dracos strayed out of sight into the next column of stalls. Once the coast was clear, he set his basic plan to motion.   
  
He carefully crawled across the straw bedding to the bars of his cage and began to dig at the dirt floor. The adults watched him from their pens and shook their heads. They knew they couldn't get out that way. The Dracos had wiring burrowed into the ground to prevent escape attempts, but the boy's ambition was startling.   
  
Runt clawed desperatley until he reached the buried wire. To his dismay, it was viciously barbed also! Undeterred, the boy dug deeper, dirt flinging in all directions. It had to have a bottom! It had to! But, he thought, if I do get out, how will I get past the guards? I'll think of something! Just keep digging...   
  
His dirt encrusted finger nails chipped painfully against embedded rocks, but he kept going. Suddenly, his wish came true! His finger tips brushed the edge of the wire's end! A little farther...   
  
BANG!!!!   
  
He cried out as he came face to face with H'loke, red-handed. She had struck the bars of his cell with her club-like tail. Smoke billowed in silver ribbons around her scaley nostrils, her bleached white teeth were exposed threateningly,   
  
"Get back, Runt!" she hissed.   
  
He did as he was told. He had his back to the wall, cowering in fear. The boy had seen her burn those who disobeyed her with her fire breath...and most don't make it.   
  
H'loke whirled around so that her thick tail concealed the hole he had made.   
  
Glaurung the gold strode to her with his final decision, oblivious of Skinny's previous antics,   
  
"Save #92, #93, and #94 for me, I'll pick them up tomorrow morning."   
  
H'loke bowed her slight head in assurance. He nodded and turned to leave the sales barn.   
  
H'loke spun her flexible neck towards the runt boy in furious relief. He going to be punished. He knew it from the look in her murderous crimson eyes,   
  
"You, my friend, are going to be working in the fortress construction tonight! I almost didn't make a sale, Stupid peck!" she blew a smoke ring at him.   
  
His eyes watered and stung from the gray mist. He tried holding in a cough, but it exploded out of his throat anyway. While he was temporarily blind, H'loke unlocked and swung the cage door open. She snatched him up with a thin, clawed hand and dragged the poor kid out of the pen by his arm. Runt struggled futilely. The harder he squirmed, the harder she dug her claws into him.   
  
"Aah! Let me go!" he kicked out in self defence.   
  
"Shut up, you little peck! Or I'll give you something else to whine about!" she pulled him across the room even more brutally.   
  
Runt yelped when he felt his shoulder crack. Sunlight then burned into his eyes as they left the barn behind them. The afternoon heat was already unbearable and he could see other slaves working on the fifty foot terraces. This was where Fort Zenith was going to stand.   
  
The little blond boy fought H'loke's grip even harder with his sheer determination, but she always won.   
  
"Listen, peck, did you know that someone else is interested in your mother and sister?" she growled in to his long, pointed ears.   
  
"...yes..."   
  
"I know what he plans to do with them. Would you like me to sell them to him?"   
  
He knew exactly what she meant! Anything but that! He shook his head vigorously,   
  
"I'll work. Don't sell them to Smog! Please!" he pleaded.   
  
"Then go push those wheelbarrows. I want 5 piles of rocks here and 4 holes." she picked up a dusty, vacant shovel from a nearby boulder and shoved it into his little hands, "Dig. I want a 5 ft. wide, 5 ft deep hole."   
  
Runt jabbed the blade into the ground, paused, and then asked,   
  
"But, how will I get out?"   
  
"Go figure." she snickered.  
  
H'loke retreated back to the stone barn away from the smoldering sun. Skinny however, sweat dripping from his brow, worked at a single hole for over three hours. He had made thoughts of escaping, but the overseers of Zenith's construction were ever watchful.   
  
By now the dirt walls of the hole surrounded the boy. It was cooler when he crouched down inside it, but when he stood up again to keep digging, burning light nearly cooked him. Sometimes one of the overseers would swagger over and kick the hot sand from the rim into the hole and burn Runt's exposed arms or his face.   
  
After another hour of digging straight down, Skinny's arms felt like they were going to fall off at any minute. The sun reflected from his shovel and his vision was blurred from the heat. He staggered a little before he collapsed in a strange sitting position.   
  
Hard, solid rain pelted in mists of dust. The little boy sneezed profusely before fully awakening and looked up to see where the rocks were coming from.   
  
A blue Dracos towered over the hole in the midst of orange twilight shadows; H'loke,   
  
"What are you doing sleeping on the job?"   
  
"I-I....the heat...it-"   
  
"Ugh! Just what I need from you, heat stroke. I swear, if you die by tomorrow morning..."   
  
"What do you care?" Runt mumbled.   
  
"Did you say something?" H'loke inquired fiercely.   
  
Skinny shook his head, dust and rocks flying off him.   
  
"That's what I thought, runt, now get back to work! You wanted to dig, now DIG!"   
  
"I have a name!" the little boy shot back hatefully, "My name is Link! Stop calling me Runt!"   
  
"Right, I keep forgetting...Link," she sneered, "Well, Weak-Link, I've seen grannies dig faster than you. Get moving. You've only got one hole done!"   
  
Link jumped up to hustle out as quick as possible to start the three other holes, but he fell clumsily back inside. More dirt was piled onto his small chest.   
  
H'loke laughed hideously as she watched him struggle to his feet and left him to reminisce in his frustrating task.  
  
The air cooled, the sun hid its face behind the the western mountain ranges and splashed orange paint across the sky. Link could hear the Dracos herding the slaves into their caged stalls for the night, but no one came for him.   
  
Still stuck in his craggy hole, Link gave up. He tried to escape several times. He even tried climbing up the shovel, but he always had to dig even more from the hole caving in. He threw his shovel out and curled up in a fetal position, wishing his mother was there to comfort him.   
  
H'loke must've forgotten about me, he thought. His stomach had started growling a few hours ago and was now roaring. His throat was parched to the point where it was painful to swallow. Link's fingers were blistered from holding the shovel and his hair had taken on a unhealthy, dirty color. He was a mess.   
  
Link sighed. He would have to wait until morning to be rescued.   
  
Sleep did not come easy. There was always a stone jabbing into his back wherever he lay. Thoughts of what would happen if he didn't finish what he was told to do plagued his mind. He was too exhausted to do anything more, but he reminded himself of Smog the grey Dracos. If he did not do something....   
  
[Hey.] a voice whispered from above.   
  
Link jumped in dismay and glanced up to find a rope of red...hair?   
  
[Grab hold of my tail and I shall pull you out.]   
  
Distrustful of the gentle sounding voice, but not wanting to be stuck in the hole all night, Link obeyed. As he climbed out, he expected a harsh thrashing from one of the Dracos....   
  
Instead, a strange creature stood before him. It had the body of a thin deer or a horse, a long, red furry tail, smooth, red fur, and the torso of a man. It had large faceted eyes that radiated in an array of pleasant colors, but it acquired no nose or mouth. It looked like a mythical centaur!   
  
Link yelped in fright and was about to run the opposite direction.   
  
[Do not be afraid, little one.] it said, but the sound did not emerge from a mouth.   
  
It echoed through Link's head and he received a warm feeling from it.   
  
He steadily relaxed. The presence of the creature was harmonizing as was its voice.   
  
[I have come to guide you, young one.] the beast seemed to smile with its eyes,  
  
[You fear for your family's welfare, but do not despair.]   
  
"But, I have to get this job done...I'm too tired..."   
  
[Then I shall help you.] with a flick of its slender hand, rocks from the terraces began to shoot up into the night air and pile themselves neatly into five rows.   
  
Shovels were animated and shoved their blades into the ground tirelessly. Almost like invisible people were wielding them!   
  
Link looked on in amazement. He could hardly believe his eyes! They couldn't possibly be moving!   
  
[Your master will not punish you now, but this is all I can do for you.]   
  
"Why are you helping me?" Link asked uneasily.   
  
[Because, young Link,] the centaur beast extended its unnaturally long, double jointed fingers and touched the young slave boy's right hand. A wave of heat ran from his single hand through his entire body.   
  
[You-] it tried to form more words, but its hand began to crackle and pop. The cracks ran gradually up its arm, onto its body, and became a sandy brown before falling into grains of sand at Link's feet. The graceful creature who had helped him with his chore was now reduced to a pile of sand in less than five seconds.   
  
[are a diamond in the rough....] the sand bubbled and churned and then lay still.  
  
Link gazed at the ground in astonishment. There was no trace of the kind creature to express his gratitude to. He cast a glance over his shoulder. The shovels had ceased their brisk labor and fell to the ground uselessly with a soft clang. As promised, 5 orderly piles of rocks and 4 tidy holes were created in the blink of an eye.   
  
What was that creature? And what did he mean? Am I going crazy? Is this all real?   
  
Link rubbed his eyes and checked again. Indeed. The holes were still there.   
  
This was too good to be true! A genuine miracle! ....but he had major doubts. H'loke would never believe that he did all this all by himself which, of course, was false. If he could just summon up a good lie...   
  
He then realized he wasn't tired anymore! He felt more relieved and energetic than ever, though, to be more authentic in his fib, he would have to look believablely and utterly drained.   
  
He looked on towards the thatched roof of the stone barn where the other slaves were kept. Past that was another building made of adobe, sun-dried bricks. It was much bigger than the barn, almost like a plantation or a mansion. But it was dull and drab from not getting paid well enough for lending slaves for construction...one reason why H'loke was selling some. She was a very cheap Dracos and now it was costing her.   
  
Gathering his courage, Link brushed the dirt off his tunic, ruffled debris out of his hair, and advanced toward the house of his dreaded master. Early rising stars shown in the inky darkness of the night, but the lights from inside H'loke's residence directed him. He strode down the cobblestone pathway, up the wooden stairs of the porch, raised his hand to knock on the door...and froze. He hesitated for a moment but then with his chin up, he rapped on the door three times.   
  
Footsteps could be heard from inside. This is it. The moment of truth...well, lies actually, he corrected and readied himself.   
  
H'loke opened the door and was puzzled to see no one there. She looked to the left and right. No one.   
  
"Uh...Master H'loke?" Link stuttered.   
  
She looked down,   
  
"Oh! I didn't see you....well?"   
  
"My chore's done." he said.   
  
H'loke chuckled sickeningly, but when she saw the seriousness in Link's face, she questioned him,   
  
"You're lying. That's impossible, a little speck like you couldn't-"   
  
"Look over there." he pointed behind him, "I swear. The holes are dug."   
  
"And the piles?"   
  
"Yup." he smiled inwardly.   
  
She sneered to herself,   
  
"Tch, you expect me to believe that bullshit?"   
  
"See for yourself. I'm not bullshitting!" Link said innocently.   
  
"Shut your face for a minute, whelp! I can see it from here." she focused her eyes and could see he was positively correct,   
  
"Ah, yes...5 piles. 4 holes...good...." she eyed him with suspision, but put it off.   
  
It was late. She was too tired to beat him for lying. All she craved was sleep.   
  
H'loke then grabbed his hand and led him back into the barn. He cooperated this time. He didn't want to be punished again. So he let her shove him into a cage and lock the barred door behind him.   
  
His master yawned and flicked her forked tongue in and out a few times before leaving him alone.  
  
He followed her weary exit. He uttered a sigh of relief. Link couldn't believe he said 'bullshit' to her! If it was during the day, she might have ripped his face off on the spot. He got lucky.   
  
Link wanted to hit himself for taking that gamble, but before he could do it, he was struck on the back of the head with a loud whomp! His pointy ears rang and his nerves trembled until the pain emerged.   
  
"Ow!" he massaged his head.   
  
"I am very disappointed in you, Link! You could've been killed out there! What were you thinking?!" he heard his mother scold from behind him.   
  
He turned to face her. He could not keep eye contact with her angry blue eyes and gazed at the straw littered floor. His mother's appearance was similar to his own, but her anger molded her face into a deformity. She closed her eyes and tried to calm down and keep her fury to a minimum.   
  
"How many times have I told you about escaping?" she endeavored talking in place of berating, "It's vain. Do you know what that means?"   
  
"No..." he said quietly.   
  
"It means that its no use. If the desert heat doesn't get you, the Raszas, and sand worms will."   
  
"But there has to be a way! We have to try!" Link insisted.   
  
"No, we can't! If you do, you put us all in danger!"  
  
  
  
"We're in danger right now, mom!" he snapped  
  
.   
  
His mother stopped...he was right....by the Goddesses, he was right..  
  
"You're right, Link..." she edged closer to him but he recoiled, "I am sorry...but, you have to understand. There is nothing we can do..."   
  
Link's mother put a hand on his shoulder.   
  
"We can only hope that Aquila will fight to set us free...but until they do, we must be patient."   
  
Link remained silent and solemn. He heard of the Hylian city of Aquila many times...but every time it was mentioned, it was with solid hatred. He picked up on it and felt the same way.   
  
'If they really cared about us,' an old slave once said to Link, 'They would have freed us a hundred years ago. But no. They want to stay 'impartial'. Wimps...'   
  
"They won't help us." Link shook his head, "They left us. They failed us! Why should we wait for them?!"   
  
"Link-"   
  
He rose to his feet and walked away to the back right corner of the cage and lay there.   
  
"Link, do you really feel that way?" she asked him,   
  
"Yes...." Link didn't feel like talking of this subject anymore and asked her of his younger sister, "Where's Newt?"   
  
"She's in another cage...I hope she's ok..." and that was the end of their conversing.   
  
Link was left to wallow in his thoughts of freedom and anger towards Aquila and his mother set the disagreement aside and fell asleep an hour later. Link stayed awake....tracing the outline of the creature who had aided him outside. He would never tell anybody of it, not even his mother. They would think he was crazy and that the heat got to him in that period of time. It was his secret. His alone. 


End file.
